Democrat freeholder candidate looks forward to November

As the only Democrat on the Montville
Township Committee, Democrat county freeholder candidate Daniel
Grant is used to uphill battles but he is enthusiastic he and his
two-fellow Democrats can unseat the three incumbent Republicans on
the freeholder board in the November election.

"We have three good candidates, all of us
have experience as municipal officeholders," Grant said.

Grant along with Gary F. Colucci of Mine
Hill Township and Kathleen O'Neill Margiotta of Morris Township
will face current Morris County Freeholder Director

Douglas Cabana of Boonton Township and his
fellow Republican incumbents on the board, Jack Schrier of Mendham
Township and John Inglesino of Rockaway Township.

The three Democrats and the three
Republicans are unopposed in the Tuesday, June 26
primary.

Voter registration in Morris County runs
roughly 70 percent Republican. Former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman
owes her narrow victory over Democrat James McGreevey two years ago
to the huge plurality she won in this county.

To be sure, running as a Democrat is a
challenge, Grant acknowledges. However, with McGreevey topping the
ticket as the Democrat candidate for governor again this year,
Grant said he is feeling enthusiastic.

"In the past when we've run before,
Democrats were name-only candidates," Grant admitted in an April
interview.

Contacted Monday, June 11, Grant was still
fired up about open space and overdevelopment issues.

He said he had gone, with his running mates,
to forums across the county.

"(The county) just agreed to pay $3.2
million for the development rights to Wightman Farms in Harding,"
Grant said. "They could have built maybe 12 houses on that
property.

"Sure, they've learned to farm in Harding.
They've learned to farm gold nuggets out of their land."

Grant said the purchase, under the farmland
preservation portion of the open space act, does little for the
county as a whole in terms of stopping overdevelopment and the
strain on government services that accompany it.

In the meantime, he said, Netcong is faced
with a 100 unit project seeking approval and another 750 units are
slated for development in Roxbury Township.

Grant has won some positive reviews for a
plan he unveiled to step up open space preservation in the
county.

He proposes using the money raised by the
county's open space set-aside tax to purchase bonds, thereby
greatly increasing the dollar amount available for
acquisitions.

When government entities bond, they are
typically required to put up about five percent of the total amount
borrowed or "bonded" in cash up front, then pay the rest back with
interest over time.

Based on the county's current open space
tax, Grant said $185 million could be raised "to purchase land
under development pressure now."

While Republicans running the county
freeholder board have become big talkers about the need to preserve
open space since it became a hot topic with voters a few years ago,
Grant said, they haven't really been "in earnest" when it comes to
executing those acquisitions.

"The process has been very slow," he said,
noting some $40 million has been collected and about $18 million of
it spent.

He also said the money collected by the
county for open space isn't all used to acquire land
anyway.

"It is divided into four different
categories," Grant said. "The first is open space acquisition,
that's about 50 percent. The second is about 12.5 percent of the
money goes to the parks commission for, the argument is,
maintaining open space. The third, about 12.5 percent goes to the
Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority (MCMUA), and the
fourth, about 25 percent goes or farmland preservation."

"I've researched this," Grant said of his
proposal for more aggressive open space preservation efforts. "I've
gone to the county offices and looked up figures, I've spoken with
county officials.

"Municipalities don't have the ability to
deal with huge developers," he said. "They don't have the resources
and the state has really reduced the municipal role in approval of
development."

Grant said under his plan, the money put out
in bond costs would be recouped in relatively short order, some two
plus years, at least in part by cutting down on new housing and the
costs associated with that.

"It's always tough to be a Democrat," Grant
said of running in Morris County. "What I bring to the table is I
really want to be a freeholder. (Freeholder seat) seems to have
become a kind of a holding pattern for people (Republicans aiming
for higher office)," he said.

Grant has been a Montville committee member
for most of the past 11 years. First elected in 1989, he lost in
1995 and was then elected again the following year. He has lived in
Montville Township all his life and is married with two grown
children. Grant is an independent auto broker.

He said he and the other Democrats will
maintain separate campaign accounts, but will work together. He
complimented both of them highly.

"We all have municipal experience and we
would like to put it to good use," he said.

Colucci was a member of the Mine Hill
council from 1988 to 1991, when he opted to run for mayor instead
of seeking re-election. He did not win the mayoral race.

Colucci works for First Union National Bank
in employee benefits administration. He and his wife are raising
two children.

He is vice president of the Planning Board
and a member of the environmental commission and open space
committee in Mine Hill.

"I do know for a fact the cost of municipal
services are night and day in terms of developed space and open
space," he said. Colucci said the state development plan that was
approved last year places lots of the county in a no growth area,
but he said, "Unfortunately, there are ways around it.

Colucci said, "If people want change, they
have to vote change."

The other Democrat, O'Neill Margiotta,
served on the council in Morristown from 1990-1998 and now lives in
Morris Township with her husband and two children. She, too, sees
open space as the big issue on which Democrats are the ones with
the commitment and a plan, said Grant.

Cabana and Schrier, however, counter their
commitment to open space is one of many years and many
successes.

Cabana, 41, a lifelong resident of Boonton
Township, was presented with the first Oscar Kincaid award at the
township's reorganization meeting in recognition of his service to
the community and commitment, like Kincaid's, to preserving the
township's character by preserving open space.

The freeholder director said he and Murphy
were scheduled to meet today, Wednesday, with state officials about
the future of the Greystone facility in Morris Township. Currently,
a psychiatric facility the state is threatening to close it because
of various problems, part of the 200 acres may be acquired by the
county to preserve as open space.

Also, at issue is Speedwell Village in
Morristown, which Cabana said Freeholder Frank Druetzler is
suggesting could become an historic preservation component of the
county's existing open space fund.

Currently, the freeholders are collecting
three cents per $100 of assessed valuation. They are considering
putting a question on the ballot to increase it. He said he favors
asking voters to authorize collection of a maximum of five cents
per $100. The freeholders last went to the voters in 1998 and were
successful in getting approval to increase the authorization from
two cents to three cents per $100.

Cabana is an attorney who has been in his
own practice for the past six years. He has been a freeholder since
he was appointed to the seat vacated by Sue Ostergaard in 1997.
Prior to that, at a county Republican convention in June 1996 to
fill a vacancy on the freeholder board, Cabana lost by two votes to
former county Sheriff John Fox.

He was a member of the Boonton Township
Committee for 14 years until resigning last fall. He served six
years as mayor and deputy mayor for four years. He is
single.

Cabana said the three Republicans are
running as a ticket.

Inglesino, who is also mayor of Rockaway
Township, was elected at a convention last month to fill the seat
vacated by Joseph Pennacchio. He, too, is an attorney. Inglesino is
married with two children.

Inglesino has been mayor of the township
since 1996. He was re-elected for a second four-year term that
began last year. Prior to that, he was Second Ward councilman for
two years, when he was elected mayor.

Schrier is a retired marketing consultant
first elected to the freeholder board in November of 1998 after
being the top vote-getter in a June primary that year that featured
13 candidates.

Schrier of Mendham Township is in his third
year as a freeholder and his tenth year as a Mendham Township
Committee member. He served as mayor of Mendham Township in 1997
and 1998, and as deputy mayor from 1994 through 1996.

Open space was cited by Schrier as a
priority for the freeholders as well.

"I know Doug has been very committed to open
space preservation both in Boonton Township and for the county,"
Schrier said. "I know John Inglesino fairly well. I understand he
has done a good job in Rockaway Township with open space
preservation and I'm sure we'll work well together."

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In recent weeks, Long Hill Township and Watchung Borough passed ordinances allowing their police departments to be able to apply for surplus equipment from the Department of Defense. Long Hill recently procured a Humvee to use in times of flooding, which Watchung states as the reason they are getting into the program. However, in cities around the country, police forces have used the program to obtain military gear, such as weapons and armor.
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